Sometimes there is a unique opportunity to do an activity and last week I saw one of them. My task: to bring a car to Spain, 2200 km / 1375 nm South of where I live. It is something I do every Summer, and I normally do it in one go: leave at 2 AM, arrive at midnight. Forced petrol/stretch/food stops every two hours, giving an average of 100 km/hr . The route passes Belgium and France, before entering Spain.
My plans to summit Mont Blanc this Summer were fading away, after a knee injury in June forced me to cease my physical preparation, and focus on recovery instead. I refuse to climb a mountain if I don’t feel ready for it, so Mont Blanc will have to wait. The route from The Netherlands to Spain however, passes the French alps and I saw a great opportunity to do a hiking stop on the way. A bit of research showed that the La Grave area was only one hour off-route and it is a beautiful area known for its glaciers. With the objective of grasping an opportunity to do hike more using crampons, I had set my target to Dome de la Lauze: a small peak topping the Girose glacier. It is small walk compared to a Mont Blanc summit (and therefore doable with only 90% recovery of the injury) but still a good 4 hour walk up and down with crampons. I was going to leave home early in the morning, arrive at La Grave around mid-day, do the hike with a guide, and check in to a hotel to get some rest.
Wrong. The last-minute decision meant that no guides were available, and a thunderstorm was expected to arrive in the afternoon. This meant departing the evening before and drive all night (and as such getting no rest) and do the walk solo. Using Suunto maps I could see which routes were typically followed, but glacier circumstances change by day so a route walked last month is by means valid today. The unavailability of guides meant that there would be plenty groups walking up, leaving trails that I could follow without following into a crevasse. So be it. The drive went well and smoothly. But I did arrive very tired and decided to have a small nap in the car before going up to the glacier.
Arriving at the glacier at 3.2 km at 10:30 AM, I could see several groups leaving, leaving several trails clearly visible on the glacier. I decided to first follow one group in the direction of the Rateau peak, and then traverse to the xxx glacier, a route that was in line with the heat maps of Suunto recorded hikes. I slapped my crampons on my new La Sportiva boots (today was going to be a test of my new boots too), took the ice axe out and off I went. Reaching an altitude of 3384 m an hour later I stopped for a break and realised that the sleepless night, lack of training and no acclimatisation meant that I was moving fairly slowly. The thunderstorm was now expected to arrive later in the afternoon so there was more time to do this hike.
In order to traverse, one has to descent to 3270 m in order to ascent again to Dome de la Lauze. During the traverse, beautiful crevasses can be seen showing a glimpse of the glacier’s interior.
Two hours into the climb I met another group who were having a break and I decided to take a short drinking break as well to stay behind them. The group eventually took a different route and I decided to move straight up to the 3.5 km summit, arriving there after 2 hours 45 minutes into the climb. I had my lunch at the top, a package of astronaut food, and enjoyed the view; the first summit view I’ve had this year after the long COVID-19 lockdown and injury recovery. It felt good.
Wind had picked up by now and I put my wind jacket over my new Patagonia Sunshade hoody (fantastic piece of clothing by the way!) and descended in 45 minutes. I ordered a pizza at the restaurant below the glacier, but wind was picking up so much that people had to hold their plates to prevent their food from flying down the mountain. Back down in the car, which was boiling hot by now, I was happy I did this short excursion. A small pit stop at a mountain while on-route, it allowed for my first solo glacier climb, test new equipment (new boots, shirt, Iridium GPS tracker, etc.) and gave a wonderful time in the mountains spending more hours on crampons.
Ciao!
Robin
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